This project involved designing a long-term monitoring program for Parks Canada that would feed into their ratings on the condition of the park. TCS worked with the Park of Banff and determined the best assessment protocols would be related to ecological function and as such a health assessment protocol was determined to be the best approach. However, as the disturbance regimes in the park are unique as are the ecological concerns an adapted approach to assessing the ecological health of the park was determined to be necessary.
In addition to this TCS built a monitoring program with detailed vegetation sampling along with the rapid health assessment protocol for the park. This system included a process to determine how frequently detailed assessments should be taken and how frequently rapid assessments should be completed. The protocol used was set up to allow data to be shared with ECOSYS in the provincial government and incorporated into the provinces plant community guides. This allowed the park to utilize the plant community guides already created for mapping the plant communities of the park.
The TCS team provided 3 years of field assessment support and training to the staff at Banff National Park to train them how to use the protocol and troubleshoot any issues.
